Electrical Design software

[skhara]

Guys,
I am curious what kinds of electrical controls design platforms you make use of. I mean: things like AutoCad Electrical, plain old AutoCad, E-plan, SW electrical, etc....

If you use these systems, please also note if you like what you use, pro's and cons as you see it.

Thanks.

 

[rdrast]

I hate Autocad Electrical, and right now, I actually hate AutoCad. Total, unmitigated bloatware, virtually impossible to uninstall, every new revision (every year) becomes a completely separate installation, you cannot re-host a license if it is past the release year... total garbage. They are living on their (past, good) reputation only.

E-Plan has my vote for the best electrical/controls CAD package out there.

SolidWorks is supposed to be very good, but I've not played with it.

 

[Aabeck]

Based on previous recommendations from this forum, I downloaded & use Draftsight. The regular version is free & it works well for me for electrical & mechanical designing. And it's available in 32 & 64 bit versions.

It can be downloaded from Cnet at http://download.cnet.com/windows/

 

[the_msp]

Another vote for Eplan

 

[LadderLogic]

Guys,
I am curious what kinds of electrical controls design platforms you make use of. I mean: things like AutoCad Electrical, plain old AutoCad, E-plan, SW electrical, etc....

This has been discussed so many times on this forum, you may find a lot of valuable information using "Search". Be aware that this is one of the 'holy war'-type topics, so will never find definite answers.

 

[OkiePC]

Slightly old thread, but ...

I just went through getting quotes for AutoCAD last week for my new job where they had no old licenses to lean on, and even the LT version is too expensive for what we will do here.

So, after reading all weekend about all the knock offs, I downloaded and installed nanoCAD this morning. So far, I am quite impressed with it. I opened the biggest files I could find and found a couple of missing fonts...fixed that easily but otherwise, it works and acts like AutoCAD and it is totally free. I was a bit skeered of downloading software from a Russian vendor at first, but I am pleased with the performance and this very early stage.

Any other nanoCAD users out there?

 

[Sherlock4me]

I'm nearing the end of my AutoCAD cram self course with the 30 day trial. Cost will put an end to that once the trial is over.

Fascinated to hear nanoCAD is something you are getting into. I'll dig myself but any info you have would be appreciated.

Regards

 

[OkiePC]

I'm nearing the end of my AutoCAD cram self course with the 30 day trial. Cost will put an end to that once the trial is over.

Fascinated to hear nanoCAD is something you are getting into. I'll dig myself but any info you have would be appreciated.

Regards

Looks and acts like Autocad LT so far. I will have to build my own blocks or retrieve them from when I used AutoCAD LT98 many years ago. I will be doing some P&ID, functional block diagrams and electrical drawings with it.

It is a 372MB download, has paper space and model space, multiple viewports. I only used it for a couple of hours so far but all the commands I have tried so far work the same. The buttons along the bottom border are not as pretty, but so what? I have only opened a few drawings and set up a viewport, plotted one of them. So far, so good.

 

[jstolaruk]

I use DraftSight for printing & converting from newer to older version of AutoCAD. I'm still using AutoCad 2000 in a virtual window.

Eplan seat is $16K I'm told -yikes!

 

[OkiePC]

DraftSight was the other free choice I looked at too. I ended up picking NanoCAD basically as a coin flip. I think there was some feature in nanoCAD that I liked better. I looked at so many poorly written reviews and so many other clones, I cannot even recall the details. Information overload hit me and then I just decided to pick one and go for it.

 

[jstolaruk]

DraftSight was the other free choice I looked at too. I ended up picking NanoCAD basically as a coin flip. I think there was some feature in nanoCAD that I liked better. I looked at so many poorly written reviews and so many other clones, I cannot even recall the details. Information overload hit me and then I just decided to pick one and go for it.

NanoCAD sounds like a nice alternative, I haven't heard of it but will check it out also - thanks!

 

[LadderLogic]

Eplan seat is $16K I'm told -yikes!

That is only if you get all the bells and whistles - most of which you don't really need.

It still is not cheap - but nothing like that amount.

 

[OkiePC]

Try $4500 for a single license of vanilla AutoCAD 2015. $1350 for AutoCAD LT.
ProgeCAD Intellicad Professional can be had for $499 and Accelicad is a little less. Those two have 3d modelling support. For $150 you can get Intellicad 8 from the makers of Accelicad.

Prices rounded from memory. ProgeCAD may have the best feature set and reputation among the Intellicad based products out there.

The story of Intellicad is interesting read. It's the basis for a boat load of knockoffs, all legal.

I never looked at Eplan. I would have to retrain myself and I started with AutoCAD r14 in 1996, so I don't want to do that just to make line and pipe drawings.

 

[DwSoFt]

Has anyone tried "The Constructor"? I have the 9.0 trial, and it tests your wiring diagram in real time so you can find issues in the design stage before you are in the installation phase. 400 USD for a license. I liked the trial anyways.

 

[Aabeck]

That is only if you get all the bells and whistles - most of which you don't really need.

It still is not cheap - but nothing like that amount.

E-plan with the electrical add-on runs about $10,000 US hen I was looking at it last year